The row over the independence referendum turned ugly on Thursday as one of Alex Salmond’s closest aides branded unionists ”anti-Scottish”.
South of Scotland MSP Joan McAlpine faced calls for her resignation as the First Minister’s parliamentary liaison officer following her explosive comments during a debate at Holyrood.
The controversy flared as Mr Salmond dismissed a fresh attempt by opposition MSPs to bring forward the date of the referendum he plans to hold in autumn 2014. In highly-charged scenes in the parliamentary chamber, Mr Salmond insisted the Scottish people had expressed a desire for the crunch poll to be controlled by his SNP administration.
”The people of Scotland spoke in the election and their voice was very clear indeed,” he said.
He again rejected Prime Minister David Cameron’s offer to grant MSPs the temporary power to hold an earlier ”legal” referendum under certain conditions.
But Ms McAlpine went further, incensing opposition MSPs with explosive comments about those who oppose independence.
”I absolutely make no apology for saying that the Liberals, the Labour Party and the Tories are anti-Scottish … in coming together to defy the will of the Scottish people, the democratic mandate the Scottish people gave us to hold a referendum at a time of our choosing.”
Intervening during Ms McAlpine’s contribution, Labour MSP Neil Findlay said such comments were an ”utter disgrace”.
Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw added: ”If you spoke against somebody who was gay, you would be homophobic; if you spoke against someone who was black, you would be racist. If you say that people are anti-Scottish because they belong to a different political party, that is a form of political racism.
“It is absolutely disgraceful and has no part in our politics.”
Mr Salmond later moved to distance himself from the row, with his official spokesman failing to back Ms McAlpine on three separate occasions during a press briefing.
He instead characterised the opposition parties as ”anti-independence”.
After the debate, Mr Findlay demanded Ms McAlpine apologise and be sacked from her role advising the First Minister.
”It is outrageously offensive to suggest someone is anti-Scottish just because you disagree with them,” he said. ”The vast majority of people in our country fall into that category, and claiming that two thirds of the country is anti-Scottish is plain ludicrous.
”Her position as a ministerial adviser to Alex Salmond is completely untenable so no wonder the Scottish Government has hung her out to dry by disassociating itself from her views.”
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott also condemned the comments, saying: ”It insults millions of Scots at home and abroad who do not want to see Scotland spilt from the UK family. Joan McAlpine should apologise for this remark and remember that you do not have to believe in independence to be a proud Scot.”
A spokesman for the First Minister said: ”Ms McAlpine was referring to the conduct of the leaderships of the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parties at Westminster this week who have been interfering in Scotland’s right to set our own terms for the referendum.”
Ms McAlpine said later: ”Let me be crystal clear people and parties can hold whatever views they wish and be patriotic Scots. As was clear in my tweets and comments, the Tory, Lib Dem and Labour leaderships whom my remarks were directed at should not be ganging up against Scotland’s democratic right to decide our own future.”